A missile launcher is capable of receiving, storing, and launching one or more missiles. Missile launchers-vertical missile launchers, in particular—have been developed for warships whose primary missions are in deep (“dark”) water, far away from shore, where the target is typically about 70 kilometers or more away. FIG. 1 depicts two such vertical missile launchers, launchers 102-1 and 102-2, mounted on outside decks of warship 100 as is known in the prior art.
In some prior art arrangements, the vertical missile launchers are mounted below the deck in enclosed regions. FIG. 2 depicts a perspective-view of a Lockheed-Martin MK 41 vertical missile launch system, which is an example of a missile launch system known in the prior art. The MK 41 launch system can be located either above or below deck. Each cell of the vertical missile launcher houses a missile canister, which in turn houses a missile. Each missile must carry enough fuel for delivering the required munitions to a target, where the target can be considerably beyond the horizon. Because the missiles are big and heavy, owing to their mission, reloading the missiles can be a complex and slow process.
The need for warships that operate primarily in coastal areas (i.e., littoral waters), has increased in the past few years. These littoral warships have missions that generally require short-range missiles (i.e., missiles with ranges around 70 kilometers or less). In addition, littoral warships are often intended for missions in which multiple, smaller, closer targets are engaged (i.e., so called “small boat swarms,”) which require the warship to fire missiles for a prolonged period of time. In short, the relatively smaller amount of heavy, long-range missiles that deep water warships carry is undesirable in a littoral warship because of the excessive firepower of each long-range missile, the insufficient number of missiles that are ready for launching at any given time, an inability to rapidly re-load missiles, and, in some cases, an inability to re-load missiles without returning to shore.
Shorter-range missiles, such as those that are desirable for a littoral warship, are usually launched from a horizontal or inclined position, not a vertical position. As a consequence, these types of missiles are typically launched from on-deck launchers. Unfortunately, most on-deck missile launchers have a substantial signature (e.g., infrared, radar, etc.) which decreases their likelihood of survivability.
Therefore, the need exists for a missile launch system that avoids or mitigates some or all of these problems.